William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him "Chatham" or "Pitt the Elder" to distinguish him from his son William Pitt the Younger, who also served as prime minister. Because of his long-standing refusal to accept a title until 1766, Pitt also was known as "the Great Commoner".
George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with George as its king. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-elector of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, who, unlike his two predecessors, was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute,, styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He became the first Tory to hold the position and was arguably the last important royal favourite in British politics. He was the first prime minister from Scotland following the Acts of Union in 1707. He was also elected as the first president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland when it was founded in 1780.
William Wildman Shute Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, PC, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 38 years from 1740 to 1778. He was best known for his two periods as Secretary at War during Britain's involvement in the Seven Years War and American War of Independence.
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, was a British Whig statesman and magnate, most notable for his two terms as prime minister of Great Britain. He became the patron of many Whigs, known as the Rockingham Whigs, and served as a leading Whig grandee. He served in only two high offices during his lifetime but was nonetheless very influential during his one and a half years of service.
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain, during the early reign of the young George III. He served for only two years (1763-1765), and attempted to solve the problem of the massive debt resulting from the Seven Years' War. He instituted a series of measures to increase revenue to the crown, including new taxes and enforcement of collection, and sought to bring the North American colonies under tighter crown control.
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most of the American War of Independence. He also held a number of other cabinet posts, including Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation and it was dismissed in the same year.
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, was an English Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain, his official life extended throughout the Whig supremacy of the 18th century. He is commonly known as the Duke of Newcastle.
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne,, was an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman who was the first home secretary in 1782 and then prime minister in 1782–83 during the final months of the American War of Independence. He succeeded in securing peace with America and this feat remains his most notable legacy.
John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, was a British Whig statesman and peer who served as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1757 to 1761. A leading member of the Whig party during the Seven Years' War, he negotiated the 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict. Bedford was also an early promoter of cricket and a patron of the arts who commissioned numerous works from prominent artists, most notably Canaletto.
The 1807 United Kingdom general election was the third general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Bedford Whigs were an 18th-century British political faction, led by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Other than Bedford himself, notable members included John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich; Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower; Richard Rigby, who served as principal Commons manager for the group; Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth; Edward Thurlow; and George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
The Grenville Whigs were a name given to several British political factions of the 18th and the early 19th centuries, all of which were associated with the important Grenville family of Buckinghamshire.
The 1768 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, served as Prime Minister of Great Britain during 1762–1763. He was the first Tory Prime Minister since the Harley ministry during 1710–1714 though his ministry was largely made up of Whigs.
Between 1757 and 1762, at the height of the Seven Years' War, the Pitt–Newcastle ministry governed the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was headed by Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, serving in his second stint as prime minister. The most influential and famous minister, however, was William Pitt the Elder, Secretary of State.
The Cobhamite faction were an 18th-century British political faction built around Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham and his supporters. Among its members, the group included the future Prime Ministers William Pitt and George Grenville. They had a general Whig philosophy and were at first supporters of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole but later became opponents of his administration.
The Cider Bill of 1763 was a proposed measure by the British government of Lord Bute to put a tax on the production of cider. Britain's national debt had reached unprecedented levels during the early 1760s following the country's involvement in the Seven Years War which had been very expensive.
The Chatham ministry was a British government led by William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham that ruled between 1766 and 1768. Because of Pitt's former prominence before his title, it is sometimes referred to as the Pitt ministry. Unusually for a politician considered to be Prime Minister, Pitt was not First Lord of the Treasury during the administration, but instead held the post of Lord Privy Seal.
